Brussels Restaurant Bozar Climbs to 42nd Place in Global Rankings
Brussels restaurant Bozar has climbed from 63rd to 42nd place in the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking, marking the first time chef Karen Torosyan has secured a spot in the top 50. De Standaard reported that the organization notified Torosyan a week prior to the ceremony, allowing him to travel to Lima, Peru, where the winners were announced on Wednesday. While the precise rankings inside the top tier were withheld until the morning of the event, the leap of 21 places Torosyan alongside a select group of Belgian culinary figures.
Torosyan, a 46-year-old chef of Armenian-Georgian descent, leads the kitchen inside the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts. The restaurant currently holds two Michelin stars and a 17.5 out of 20 score from Gault&Millau, which named Torosyan its Chef of the Year for 2026, according to regional reporting by Gazet van Antwerpen. Speaking to specialized outlet Coup de Food, Torosyan credited his team, his wife and business partner Nani Lee Torosyan, and everyone who has worked in the kitchen over the past 15 years.
Before Bozar entered the top 50, only four other Belgian restaurants had achieved the distinction: Comme Chez Soi under Pierre Wynants, De Karmeliet with Geert Van Hecke, Hof van Cleve under Peter Goossens, and The Jane with Nick Bril. Three other Belgian establishments also appeared in the broader 2024 and 2026 listings without breaking into the top 50, according to De Standaard and BRUZZ: The Jane at 63rd, Willem Hiele in Oudenburg at 66th, and Eliane in Brussels at 86th. It is a great victory for Belgium, whether we are Brussels residents, Flemings, or Walloons. Together we stand strong, not each apart,
Torosyan told Nieuwsblad.
From Dishwasher to Michelin Stars in Brussels
Torosyan’s path to international recognition began when he arrived in Brussels as an 18-year-old migrant around the turn of the millennium. Having started working in a fast-food restaurant in Georgia at age thirteen, he moved to Belgium speaking neither local language. Because the hospitality industry was his only experience, he took a job as a dishwasher in a brasserie.
He later secured a position as an assistant chef under Jean-Pierre Bruneau and Pascal Devalkeneer at Le Chalet de la Forêt. In 2010, David Martin—chef of the two-star restaurant La Paix, who had acquired the concession for the Bozar brasserie—invited Torosyan to take over the kitchen. Torosyan bought the establishment seven years later, dropping the brasserie label in favor of a formal restaurant. He earned his first Michelin star seven years after opening, secured a second in 2023, and was named Chef of the Year by Gault&Millau.
Classic French Technique in the Twenty-First Century
Unlike many contemporary chefs who favor experimental cooking, Torosyan specializes in rigorous classical French cuisine.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, established in 2002 by the British trade magazine Restaurant within the William Reed media group, relies on a global network of roughly 1,100 independent experts.
Worth a look